Samhain In The Air

If only it could be more like a Pusheen autumn. I can dig scarves and conkers and sepia.

We’re now a week into autumn and the season feels like it’s still struggling to fit into itself. It’s that awkward transitional stage where the last of the sun makes surprise appearances (mostly while driving), it can be surprisingly warm but just when you think you’re in the clear, you get caught in the rain three times in one day.

Much like the Scottish autumnal weather, I’ve been having a personality crisis.

It started off as little bit of a personal one, I think, and as a result it’s bled into being a blog one. Or maybe vice versa, I’m not sure. Either way, I’ve been having a bit of trouble with direction.

I’ve read parenting blogs aplenty, and I can’t really resonate with any of them. We don’t have the space or financial backing to make fanciful baby wishlists. It’d feel forced, when I don’t even write wishlist posts of my own. From what I’ve read (and this isn’t intended as a sleight, so please don’t take it as one), a lot of parenting blogs are about parenting stuff and parenting stuff alone. I don’t know if I really want to exclusively commit to writing about baby or parenting stuff. For one thing, this ‘ere blog started as a way of charting my vegan/foodie progress and I quickly ran out of steam with that. For another, I like keeping some things for myself. Writing about pregnancy progress is different because it’s more about my general lifestyle and how I’ve adapted it, than solely baby-focused content. As much as I’ve enjoyed charting my progress, I also want to reserve some of my blog for me.

So that got me thinking- if I want to expand my content, where do I go?

I don’t fit into the fashion or beauty mould. Clothes-wise, I buy what I like but don’t really keep ahead of anything. I dress like it’s autumn all the time. Sure, I like dressing up and feeling fierce, but at the moment I’m just happy to find things that stretch when I eat. I buy cruelty free beauty and toiletry products but I don’t really make a point of writing about them. Maybe I will some day, but there are so many beauty bloggers that I’d just be swimming upstream.

Mostly if it’s baggy, I’ll wear it.

I’ve been making myself get involved in Twitter chats, which I’d avoided for ages because I never thought I had much to contribute. After a while I realised how dumb that sounded. The whole point of social media is to engage, is it not? It’s one thing to duck out of a night out because you don’t feel like talking to people in person, but it’s another to actively avoid being social on social media. Sure, my avoidance was built out of a slight social anxiety and a feeling of inadequacy- that’s not going to get better by not doing anything about it though. Yeah, socially I’m still a novice, but that’s true of a lot of things and I’m managing them OK.

One chat I discovered, and instantly clicked with, was A Film Club. My first blog, back in 2009, was pretty much exclusively focused on film and TV as part of my degree. At first it felt like a doss, but it made me think more about film: what I liked, didn’t like, why I felt that way and what components of a film formed my judgement of it. I missed that aspect of blogging- the critical writing part, the part that triggered thought and offered some diversity- but I wasn’t sure how to bring it in. I’m not sure exactly how it came up, but I discovered A Film Club- hosted by the lovely Sian– and thought it looked like a fun way to get back into it. It’s been really fun and incurred an itch to draw it out some more- the question was how.

Which brings us to now: autumn is my favourite season and October is my favourite month. It’s not too cold yet, there’s still foliage but most of it’s orange and red, there are pumpkins everywhere and everything seems a little bit spooky.

Ally and I spend most of October watching exclusively horror films, so I figured why not write about them too? Unlike my other blogging endeavours, I’ve actually drawn up a plan for this one, so I’m less likely to falter after the first week or so. Who knows, I might even keep it up after All Hallows… like with any new ventures and ideas I’m always keen to develop them, so I’d love to hear any suggestions, comments or feedback on it.

5 Comments

Glad you are finding your place in the blogging world! I’m in the same position right now, I’ve spent my first year of blogging writing about fashion beauty and lifestyle and to be honest it feels so un original and like I’m just getting lost in a sea of a million girls all doing the same thing! I want to start writing more about film and music on my blog and found out about A Film Club recently too! Can’t wait to read about all the horror films you’ve been watching!

It’s hard because I like keeping myself open to different things and get bored concentrating on a niche but there are already so many people writing about some things. I think when you have a real passion for something your content speaks for itself though- if I wrote a beauty blog it’d be the dullest thing ever! Thank you, same! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! 🙂

We all go through this – just write what you want and see what happens. You can be a lifestyle blog with focus on being a vegan parent. I’m sure many people would be interested to hear about it! Just try different topics and stick to the ones that you enjoy the most. A blog is a journey, not a destination so you’re able to change direction whenever you wish.

Thanks for your comment! I just know I get bored when I write about the same thing all the time and it starts reflecting in the quality of what I post. When I first started it was just for me (well, and uni) and I loved it whereas foodie blogging wasn’t my thing at all- but at least I tried it and can still dip into it. Lifestyle for me could mean anything so fuck it, that’s what I’m gonna write about! 🙂
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